2018 sees high harvest of berry, fruits, low vegetables

The most recent growing season produced high berry and fruit yields, while outdoor vegetables suffered from drought to some degree.

Outdoor production totalled 25 million kilograms of berries and fruit, and 163 million kilograms of vegetables, said a press release of Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke) on Tuesday.

The berry and fruit harvest was one million kilograms higher than in the previous year, while the outdoor vegetable harvest decreased by 3.5 million kilograms.

“Even though the 2017 and 2018 growing seasons were highly different from one another, both years produced record-high yields of strawberries and apples. The strawberry harvest was 15 million kilos and the apple harvest was seven million kilos. Irrigation was highly important last summer in order to produce high yields. Of course, irrigation also caused additional work and costs for farmers”, said Anna-Kaisa Jaakkonen, senior statistician of Luke.

The total berry harvest was 18 million kilograms. Strawberry harvest levels were high in its main production areas, being more than 4,000 kilos per hectare in the Southern and Northern Savonia regions. In addition, the strawberry area increased to 4,155 hectares in the whole of Finland. On the basis of total yields, Southwest Finland was the second most important region in terms of strawberry production, following Northern Savonia.

Meanwhile, garden peas were the most important outdoor vegetables in terms of the area. Its production is divided into peas sold with their pods and frozen peas. The production area of garden peas has increased for several years now. Compared to 2017, the garden pea area increased by 680 hectares to 4,717 hectares. Its harvest was 6.4 million kilos.

Of all outdoor vegetables, carrots produced the highest yield at 67 million kilos. This was four million kilos higher than in 2017.

However, Tomato production remained unchanged at 39 million kilos. Of this, special tomato varieties accounted for 5.2 million kilos.

“Currently, it is estimated that 50–60 different varieties of vegetables are produced in pots. The size of the “other potted vegetables” group has increased steadily”, Anna-Kaisa Jaakkonen said.

A total of 3,407 enterprises were engaged in horticultural production. Of these, 2,708 were engaged in outdoor production and 999 in greenhouse production. The outdoor production area was approximately 20,000 hectares, of which the Southwest Finland, Tavastia and Uusimaa regions accounted for half. Half of the greenhouse area of 400 hectares was located in the areas of the ELY Centres of Ostrobothnia and Southwest Finland.